1947 Belmont Futurity winner CITATION and jockey Al Snider. Ben Jones, Warren Wright and Jimmy Jones of Calumet. Early in March 1948, jockey Al Snider, the regular rider of Calumet Farms magnificent colt Citation, and two friends, trainer C.H. Tobe Trotter and businessman Donald Frazier, set sail from Miami for a week-long fishing trip in the Florida Keys. On the afternoon of March 5, the trio left their yacht, which was anchored in Sandy Key, to go fishing in a 15-foot skiff. They planned to return within an hour. They carried with them reserve fuel, a jug of water, life-jackets, 75 of rope, extra spark-plugs, a bailing pail, oars, and an anchor. Friends left behind on the yacht could see the skiff about a mile away. Then darkness began to fall, and the men were lost to view. Not long after that, the captain of a passing boat saw the three men. There was no sign of any trouble, and the sea was calm. The skiff was a half-mile from land, and in shallow water—no deeper than four feet. If the boat ran into trouble, they could easily swim, or even wade ashore. Snider and his companions were never seen again. A week later, a search party found the skiff, but not the slightest trace of the three men was ever found. Another oddity was that the boat was completely empty--oars, seat cushions, everything was gone. There were some far darker rumors about the tragedy. Snider was said to have been an honest rider who could not be bribed into fixing a race. To this day, some believe that Snider’s refusal to pull up Citation in certain key races made him some very dangerous enemies. (Im friends with an eightysomething fellow who worked at Calumet during the Citation era, and who knew Snider personally. When I once asked him what he thought had happened to Snider, he instantly replied matter-of-factly, Why, the gangsters got him. Everyone knew that.) -from Strange Company
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 10:16:40 +0000
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